This blog is meant to provide insight into the Sacred Scriptures. Through it I will share what I have learned about God's Word through my personal prayer, academic studies, and other encounters with the Bible. My hope is to encourage you in your own faith journey through the Word. God Bless!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

More Thoughts on Boston Bombings: 4th Sunday of Easter

We priests and deacons are charged with proclaiming God’s
Word in our homily.Ideally, we
connect the readings and make them more alive and concrete for you.

Today
we have a clear connection in the readings.God is the Good Shepherd and sends His only Son to be, in a
sense, one of the flock.Jesus,
the Lamb of God, was slain for our sins.

Yet
I want to share some thoughts this morning on something different.This has been on my heart this week and
I am sure it has been on yours—the bombings in Boston.We saw another example in our world of
innocent people suffering evil they did not bring on themselves.

Last
night on the news one of the commentators said, “This bombing was like throwing
filth on the pure.”I thought this
was a vivid image for this event that took place during the Boston
Marathon.I have been blessed with
the running community in my own life and know just how this community of
athletes, fans, volunteers, family and friends are good people supporting a
great human endeavor.But this
wasn’t any marathon, it was the Bostonmarathon—you can’t just show up and
run this one, you have to qualify.Many of those runners you saw on TV trained years to fulfill this life
dream.Yet these dreams were shattered
with the two blasts at the end of the finish line.

This
week I have been reflecting and praying a lot about this attack.I especially thought—how are we
Christians and Catholics to respond to such atrocity?

First,
we must seek God.Now I don’t say
this as a cliché or in the caricature of the church mouse on her knees for
hours on end.I mean we must go to
God in concrete ways.We must
speak to God honestly about our experiences.Whether in this tragedy or other forms of suffering in your
own life, go to God.If you are
sad, tell Him.If you are angry,
express your anguish.If you are
feeling hopeless, grieved or terror, give Him your burdens.If all you can do is sigh, cry our
scream, do it because God promises in our second reading that he “will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”True prayer is honest prayer and
that is how we go to God.

And
again, we are not going to some abstract deity.We are going to our loving Father who sent His son to die
for us.Jesus, more than anyone
else, can relate to wicked things done to the innocent.In fact, he is the only true innocent
person because he was perfect.He
knows the anguish of betrayal, physical pains of torture and beatings, and a
brutal execution.He knows what
the victims, families and our nation are going through now. We can go to him because he has gone before us in such crises.

Second,
we must learn to forgive.Jesus
asks, if we forgive only our loved ones, what credit is that to us?In the only prayer he taught us—the
Lord’s Prayer that we pray at every Mass—we ask God to, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”Now forgiveness doesn’t mean we need
warm fuzzy feelings for perpetrators of violence, like what they did or forget
the trauma they caused.But it
does mean we extend mercy even to our enemies, and what greater enemies do we
have this week than these two men who bombed the innocent?

With
respect to forgiveness, I have found that it helps to remember that these
people are sons of God.Jesus died
for them just like he died for us.We should pray for their conversion and salvation, as they need God more
than ever.The man in captivity
right now is a nineteen-year old kid who is someone’s son, brother and
friend.This man needs Jesus.

The
Christians of the early Church were known for their forgiveness.This week in daily Mass we heard about
Saul and his conversion.Saul
approved of the killing of Christians and was on his way to Damascus to rip
families from their homes to subject them to arrest, torture and death.If the early Christians were not
forgiving, we would have lost one of the greatest saints ever.

Finally,
one image remains in my mind and heart during the marathon.Many of you probably saw the video
footage of the seventy-eight year old man who was a few feet from finishing his
forty-fifth marathon when the first blast went off.His legs buckled and he fell helpless to the ground.Not entirely sure what was happening,
he received help from volunteers to stand back up and finish the race.

In
the Office of Readings this morning, St. Gregory the Great said, “Anyone who is
determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the
road that leads to it.”We will
all be knocked down at some point in our lives to suffering and tragedy.At these points, when we are lying on
our back and helpless, we must turn to God.We must seek the help of friends, family and the Church to
get back on our feet and press forward to the finish line.

For
our nation, the citizens of Boston and all affected by the bombings, we pray
that God will give us the grace to turn to Him.While seeking justice, we ask for forgiveness for the
perpetrators of this attack.We
ask for God’s help to get back on our feet and continue running the race.

About Me

Hello. My name is Fr. Ben Hadrich. I received the greatest gift of my life on June 22nd, 2012--being ordained to the priesthood of Jesus Christ. I absolutely love being a priest. It was what I was made to do and I have never experienced as much peace and joy since having been ordained.